‘I Come as a Friend’

John Paul II arrives to a warm welcome in Los Angeles today because he articulates that desperate hope for peace and justice that so many share, one way or another.

For the faithful in his vast ecclesiastical empire, he is the ruler supreme--beloved but also disputed, as the world’s Roman Catholics struggle for relevance in a changing world and try to come to terms with new global appreciation of the role of women.

For all people, believers and nonbelievers, he represents a commitment to the disadvantaged and impoverished--a commitment tarnished only by his firm refusal to allow teeming populations the means to limit their numbers. That commitment provides a welcome challenge for every society, every economic system.

This Pope, born Karol Wojtyla in the simplicity of the Polish village of Wadowice 67 years ago, stands with rare prominence among the leaders of today’s world--his influence enlarged by his extraordinary intellect, his charismatic projection, his integrity, his courage. He has traveled as no other Pope, and no other chief of state, to the far reaches of the world, confronting diversity with the uniformity of his appeal for respect of each human being, for equity in sharing the world’s resources, for justice in settling disputes, for the rejection of violence, for peace.

His commitment to Latin America, reflected again on Sunday in his support of the sanctuary movement’s help for the refugees of Central America, will have resonance in the vast, vibrant Latino community in Los Angeles. Indeed, the route of his arrival motorcade was charted to celebrate the racial and ethnic diversity of the city--blacks, Asians and Latinos in particular.

“I come as a friend--a friend of America and of all Americans: Catholics, Orthodox, Protestant and Jews, people of every religion, and all men and women of good will,” he said on his arrival in Miami. “I come as a friend of the poor and the sick and the dying; those who are struggling with the problems of each day; those who are rising and falling and stumbling on the journey of life; those who are seeking and discovering, and those not yet finding, the deep meaning of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’.”

So the Pope has been received as he has moved across the Sun Belt states. And so he will doubtless be received here today--warmly and openly, but not uncritically.